If/-: KM. DIC SCIENCE. 309 



reality belong to the vegetable kingdom. According to them the flower- 

 shaped charges which Louis VI. first placed upon his seal, and which 

 rhilip of Valoia, in the fourteenth century, reduced to three, were the iron 

 tips of the three-headed javelins in use amongst the Merovingian Franks. 

 Other dabblers in heraldry have described the shield of the early Kings of 

 France as "sable, three toads or." The best contradiction to these ridiculous 

 statements is to be found in the "Annals" of William of Nangis, and that 

 ancient chronicler says, " The Kings of France had in their arms the fleur- 

 de-lis painted in three leaves, as much as to say, ' Faith, wisdom, and chivalry 

 are, by the grace of God, more abundant in our kingdom than anywhere else.' 

 The two leaves of the fleur-de-lis which are bent signify wisdom and chivalry, 

 which guard and protect the third leaf placed between them, and the 



Fig. 250. Catherine of Arragon, first Wife of Henry VIII. (1501). A Pomegranate bearing a 

 Re;l Rose and a "White, in allusion to the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster, 

 uniting the Rights of the two Families to the English Crown. 



greater length of which signifies faith, which must be governed by wisdom 

 and protected by chivalry." 



It is, therefore, beyond doubt, according to the evidence of this historian 

 of the thirteenth century, that in the arms of the King of France the central 

 petal of the fleur-de-lis represented religion, and that the wings or side-leaves 

 represented the moral and material force which was intended to support it. 

 Moreover, the fleur-de-lis was used in the arms of many noble families, both 

 French and foreign, which were in no way connected with the kings of the 

 third French race. It was only some of these families which had obtained 

 the privilege of placing the fleur-de-lis upon their escutcheon, as a recompense 

 for services rendered to the Crown. Thus Charles VII., when he ennobled 



